International Politics Thread

[E.D.Revolution]

This is a thread for all things international, including state-to-state politics and foreign relations and all that kind of stuff.
Feel free to discuss them, but try to stay away from national security, wikileaks or espionage, please? The reason for that is you NEVER know who might be getting funny ideas from those kinds of discussions. Everything else, including how a country operates their economy and government, is free for discussion.

Yes, you may talk about your own country's politics here.

First post that starts a flame war (as opposed to a civil debate) will be flagged, as per Subforum rules.


News of the day: Hosni Mubarak has been ousted from power by the people and the military.

[Phantom]

"After 3 decades, BIG MUBARAKs out, I hope the US has an incentive for the new leader to not bother israel

I went somewhere today, every egyptian I knew were in the greatest of mood I've never seen in a long while, definitely awesome for them."


(btw, how about changing the title to international politics? Diplomacy sounds like you're trying to negotiate with the other non-english forums or something :p)

[E.D.Revolution]

Done

Now let's see how Egypt might affect the Middle East, in general, especially Israel.

[Phantom]

The US might as well go in guns blazing to control the oil....Wait a second, why haven't we majorly shifted to alternative sources yet?

[E.D.Revolution]

Well, we do have our own reserves... in CANADA. That is according to wiki-*shot*

But seriously, we do have enough reserves here. Sooner or later, we can't rely on the Middle East to supply us with oil, Saudia Arabia, especially.

[Phantom]

I would hope we would go the route of Brazil in terms of being creative with trying to reduce our dependency on foreign oil.

[Ping']

Regarding Mubarak... hurray! This is a historic moment for the Egyptian people, and regardless of its implications for Israel, perhaps the beginning of a new era of hope for Africa... A powerful reminder that democracy is first and foremost about ordinary people taking control of their own destiny.

Of course, there are multiple threats to democracy, and though everyone is talking about radical islam I'm also a bit worried about the good reputation of the military and the fact that the acting president is now the leader of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, even if his mandate is supposedly to organize peaceful elections. I'm generally skeptical when it comes to the notion of a "benevolent" military... the opportunity for a coup has never been so great, will they resist taking advantage of it?

[Singidava]

Regarding the question about oil... Its price has (obviously) risen during the protests in Egypt. However the biggest risk to international economy is if political instability spreads to other Middle East countries, particularly Saudi Arabia like ED mentioned.

It's sooo interesting to see how US and EU are going to react to these things~ After all now their ideologies of spreading democracy contradict with their economical interests (also there is the Israel question)~ But of course our greedy nations always put economy first, right~? (jk)

Yeah, I'm currently more interested if other countries follow Egypt's example than what happens there right now... I'm just going to wait until the dust has cleared before guessing anything.

EDIT: I also have a question: are we allowed to talk about other politics as well in this thread~? For example here, in Finland, the next election is drawing close... I wonder if I could rant about it (and one annoying populist party in particular)~? Oh, and I'd also love to talk about US politics and how I hate Palin and how Fox News is pure propaganda (don't take this too seriously!).

[ShadowEdgeworth]

To me, the citizens of Egypt have shown that that dictatorships are not infallible.

I look forward to the future developments. Like Singidava just said, I wonder if Egypt's example will be followed, and the uprisings will begin...

[E.D.Revolution]

But for me, the biggest question regarding Egypt is... Is it going to follow Iran's footsteps, which would not be good for the international community? I'm talking about Iranian Revolution.

[Singidava]

Ah, Iranian revolution... I had to make essay about it few weeks ago... Didn't they spend a memorial day for it in Iran yesterday too? Or was it earlier?

[E.D.Revolution]

@Singidava. You may talk about that as well...

Trust me, 99% of the world would like to see Sarah Palin die. And the same populace would also want to shut down Fux News.

[Ping']

Well, I would hope that 99% of the world aren't bloodlusting sociopaths...
But to say that she is not very respected outside of the US would be an understatement.
Still, for now at least she has more to do with US domestic issues than international relations.

[E.D.Revolution]

Trust me, her reign of popularity will soon start to fall the minute she steps back into the political ring (officially, speaking). Seriously. You quit your job as governor and you hope to run for President and you criticize Obama when you're doing nothing but cause trouble and overexpose yourself?

Palin vs. Hilary Clinton... I think we know who will win this dream political match for presidency.

As for singi's question. It was a few days ago Iran celebrated its 32nd anniversary of its revolution.

[Unas]

Regarding Mubarak... hurray! This is a historic moment for the Egyptian people, and regardless of its implications for Israel, perhaps the beginning of a new era of hope for Africa... A powerful reminder that democracy is first and foremost about ordinary people taking control of their own destiny.

That sure is optimistic. And, from my point of view, a quite idealistic point of view about democracy.

From what we see in France, it seems to me that democracy is first and foremost about people never being able to listen to each other, and masses being manipulated by greedy politicians into rejecting anything that might help preserving their future...

I don't know to what extent this behaviour applies to other democratic countries, but I often have the feeling that in France, democracy is considered a synonym to endless confrontation and debating. It's almost come to the point where, were left-wing and right-wing people ever to agree on one point, it would be considered as a failure of democracy...

You know, Churchill once said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried. Well, the more I see about politics, the more I wonder about the second part of the sentence.